Friday, July 04, 2014

There is no such thing as being neutral when the stakes are so high. While endeavoring as best we can to remain objective in our news reporting, our journalism has always stood on the belief of the right moral ground when grave choices must be made.

We were not silent during reformasi. Neither have we been shy when power is abused or civil rights trespassed.

Good men and women cannot stay idle and do nothing. Speak out when persecution occurs, stand firm in rejecting the tide of sinister forces.

At certain junctures in a nation's life, its people are called upon to make stark choices. No longer is it a mere ballot cast for one candidate over another, but rather a moral choice on the fate of the nation.

Russia faced such a choice in 1996, during a runoff between independent incumbent Boris Yeltsin against Gennady Zyuganov representing the old-guard Communist Party. It was a moral choice for hope versus remnants of the past. They chose hope.

In five days this nation too will make a moral choice. In an election like no other — divisive in its campaigning, precarious in its consequences — Indonesians will be required to determine the future of our body politic with a single piercing of a ballot paper.

The Jakarta Post in its 31-year history has never endorsed a single candidate or party during an election. Even though our standpoint is often clear, the Post has always stood above the political fray.

But in an election like no other, we are morally bound to not stand by and do nothing. We do not expect our endorsement to sway votes. But we cannot idly sit on the fence when the alternative is too ominous to consider.

Each candidate in the presidential election has qualities in his declared platform. They have been dissected at length the past three weeks. And voters will sway one way or another based on it. Yet there is also a sizable part of society who are undecided in their preference.

In such a case, perhaps one can consider who not to vote for as their reasoning for that moral choice.

Our deliberations are dictated on the values by which the Post has always stood firmly for: pluralism, human rights, civil society and reformasi.

We are encouraged that one candidate has displayed a factual record of rejecting faith-based politics. At the same time we are horrified that the other affiliates himself with hard-line Islamic groups who would tear the secular nature of the country apart. Religious thugs who forward an intolerant agenda, running a campaign highlighting polarizing issues for short-term gain.

We are further perplexed at the nation's fleeting memory of past human rights crimes. A man who has admitted to abducting rights activists — be it carrying out orders or of his own volition — has no place at the helm of the world's third-largest democracy.

Our democracy will not consolidate if people's mind-set remains wedged in a security approach in which militarism is an ideal. A sense that one candidate tends to regard civilian supremacy as subordinate to military efficacy.

This nation should be proud of its military, but only if those in uniform acknowledge themselves as servants of the democratic, civilian governance.

As one candidate offers a break from the past, the other romanticizes the Soeharto era.

One is determined to reject the collusion of power and business, while the other is embedded in a New Order-style of transactional politics that betrays the spirit of reformasi.

Rarely in an election has the choice been so definitive. Never before has a candidate ticked all the boxes on our negative checklist. And for that we cannot do nothing.

Therefore the Post feels obliged to openly declare its endorsement of the candidacy of Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Jusuf Kalla as president and vice president in the July 9 election. It is an endorsement we do not take lightly.

Monday, February 03, 2014

An eye opener for present day people. Above all, there is no religion to guide them to be amongst the most honest, disciplined, educated, courteous, prosperous, humble, consciously clean and developed society of the world. There are over 30,000 Japanese above the ages of 100 in 2010, and there are the fewest number of Policemen per person to control crime.

Read this beautiful Information about Japan

1 - Did you know that Japanese children clean their schools every day for a quarter of an hour with teachers, which... led to the emergence of a Japanese generation who is modest and keen on cleanliness.

2 - Did you know that any Japanese citizen who has a dog must carry bag and special bags to pick up dog droppings. Hygiene and their eagerness to address cleanliness is part of Japanese ethics.

3 - Did you know that hygiene worker in Japan is called "health engineer" and can command salary of USD 5000 to 8000 per month, and a cleaner is subjected to written and oral tests!!

4 - Did you know that Japan does not have any natural resources, and they are exposed to hundreds of earthquakes a year but do not prevent her from becoming the second largest economy in the world? -

5 - Did you know that Hiroshima returned to what it was economically vibrant before the fall of the atomic bomb in just ten years?

6 - Did you know that Japan prevents the use of mobile in trains, restaurants and indoor

7 - Did you know that in Japan students from the first to sixth primary year must learn ethics in dealing with people -

8 - Did you know that the Japanese even though one of the richest people in the world but they do not have servants. The parents are responsible for the house and children -

9 - Did you know that there is no examination from the first to the third primary level; because the goal of education is to instill concepts and character building, not just examination and indoctrination. -

10 - Did you know that if you go to a buffet restaurant in Japan you will notice people only eat as much as they need without any waste. No wasteful food.

11 - Did you know that the rate of delayed trains in Japan is about 7 seconds per year!! They appreciate the value of time, very punctual to minutes and seconds

12 -. Did you know that children in schools brush their teeth (sterile) and clean their teeth after a meal at school; They maintain their health from an early age -

13 - Did you know that students take half an hour to finish their meals to ensure right digestion When asked about this concern, they said: These students are the future of Japan

After the terrible earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan here are some things the world should learn from them.10 things to learn from japan-

1. THE CALM

Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

2. THE DIGNITY

Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.

3. THE ABILITY

The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn't fall.

4. THE GRACE

People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

5. THE ORDER

No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.

6. THE SACRIFICE

Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?

7. THE TENDERNESS

Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.

8. THE TRAINING

The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.

9. THE MEDIA

They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.

10. THE CONSCIENCE

When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Once upon a time a very strong wood-cutter asked for a job with a timber merchant, and he got it. The salary was really good and so were the working conditions. For that reason, the wood cutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to fell the trees. The first day, the wood-cutter brought down 15 trees, "congratulations," the boss said. " Carry on with your work!" Highly motivated by the words of his boss, the wood cutter tried harder the next day, but he only could bring 10 trees down. The third day he tried even harder, but he was only able to bring down 7 trees. Day after day he was bringing lesser number of trees down." I must be losing my strength", the wood cutter thought.
He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on." When was the last time you sharpened your axe?" the boss asked." Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut the trees..."
That's right. Most of us NEVER update our skills. We think that whatever we have learned is very much enough. But good is not good when better result is expected. Sharpening our skills from time to time is needed and that is the key to success.
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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a US$ 500 note. In the room of 200 participants, He asked, "Who would like this US$ 500 note?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this note to one of you but first let me do this."
He proceeded to crumple the note up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air. "Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air. "My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money. You still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth US$ 500-. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. Remember, no matter what has happened or what will happen, never lose your value. Don't ever forget it! "VALUE HAS A VALUE ONLY IF ITS VALUE IS VALUED."
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Tuesday, September 03, 2013

"What's outrageous? Poverty wages!" This chant, echoed by thousands of striking fast food workers as they marched in the streets in New York, Chicago, and dozens of other cities on August 29, has begun to arouse the American conscience this Labor Day. The fast food industry produces billions in profits for corporations like McDonald's and Burger King. But, according to the organizers of the recent walkouts, fast food workers in New York City make only 25% of what they need to survive from their jobs. Fast food workers in other cities aren't much better off. In many ways, their struggle symbolizes the immorality of an economy that is producing jobs that keep workers poor. Who can argue with picket signs that say, "We can't survive on $7.25"?

It is not surprising that religious leaders have been conspicuously present on many of the fast food workers' picket lines. The recent protests have seen priests and ministers, rabbi and imams joining hands with fast food workers. The nation's largest labor-religious coalition, Interfaith Worker Justice, which is sponsoring Labor Day prayer services in cities across the country honoring the dignity of labor, has taken up their cause. So has Rev. Cheri Kroon, of the Flatbush Reform Church in Brooklyn. In April Rev. Kroon told the New York Times that her community was "filled with fast-food workers who have been suffering due to low wages, no sick days and unsafe working conditions."

The faith leaders now rallying to support fast food workers' demands for a living wage are reviving one of America's oldest and most powerful arguments for social justice, one deeply rooted in religious ideals. Many of those marching today for a fifteen-dollar wage for fast food workers might not realize that the very term "living wage" was first popularized by an American Roman Catholic priest, Monsignor John A. Ryan. In 1906 Fr. Ryan published a book called A Living Wage, which argued that workers deserved to earn enough to support themselves and their families in dignity. Over the next three decades, Ryan emerged as the nation's most forceful moral advocate for minimum wage. Many saw the passage of the federal minimum wage law in 1938 as a fulfillment of Ryan's long crusade.

But it was not just Ryan and Catholic co-religionists who helped elevate the ideal of a living wage in the United States. Two years after Ryan's book, the Methodist Episcopal Church adopted a "Social Creed" that endorsed the idea of "a living wage in every industry," and the nation's most prominent Jewish rabbi, Stephen Wise also took up this call.

Not only have religious leaders from across the spectrum consistently defended the living wage demand over the last century, activists from many faiths have spent much of the last decade laying the moral groundwork for the fight for justice that is now being waged by fast food workers.

The nation's first living wage ordinance passed in Baltimore in 1994. Soon fights for the living wage spread to many cities. It did not take long for religious communities to get involved. A decade ago many faiths began to go on record again in support of living wage demands. The Disciples of Christ adopted a resolution in 2005. In 2006, Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, President of the Fiqh Council of North America, issued a fatwa indicating that living wage demands were consistent with Islamic Shari'ah law.

In 2008 Rabbi Jill Jacobs authored a teshuvah (legal position) on the obligation to pay a living wage was passed by the Conservative Movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, and that same year the Presbyterian Church's "Social Creed for the 21st Century" endorsed the living wage demand. Many other denominations followed suit.

Today, the living wage ideal has been broadly embraced by the nation's religions, and the Catholic Church, which helped introduce living wage demand in the early 20th century, seems poised to provide leadership on the issue again. "Not paying a just wage, not providing work, focusing exclusively on the balance books, on financial statements, only looking at making personal profit. That goes against God!" says Pope Francis, the world's most visible religious leader.

As workers take to the streets to fight for a living wage in fast food and other low paying industries, they can take comfort from knowing the nation's religions are increasingly aligned with their cause. That is one reason for hope this Labor Day that we might finally reverse the trend toward inequality that has so long afflicted us.